The Story of the Peach Boy

It is summer in a village in Japan. An old man and woman eat dumplings. Yum! Nice little dumplings. Then the old man goes to cut wood. And the old woman goes to the river.

Suddenly the old woman sees something. It's a peach. A very big peach!
"What a very big peach!" she says. "Why is it in the river?"

The very big peach smells nice. It smells of summer in Japan. The woman catches it.
"Mmm, this peach smells wonderful. I'm taking it home with me." she says. So, she went home and showed it to her husband.

"What a big peach!" says the old man. "Let's eat it right now!" he says.
But then they hear something inside. It's a baby!
"Stop! Don't cut me!" says the voice in the peach.

There's a baby in the peach! A baby boy- a peach boy!

He is a wonderful baby, and he is happy. The old man and woman call him Momotaro - Peach Boy. They give him nice little dumplings. So he grows big and strong.

The old man and woman are good to Momotaro. So Momotaro is good too. He helps his mother and father. He is a good boy. And he is strong. He is very strong!

Then one day ogres come. They come to the village. Stamp! Stamp! Stamp!
They break things. They take things. They take the people's treasure.
Then they stamp off into the sea.
Stamp! Stamp! Stamp!

Momotaro climbed up the tree. He can see the ogres. They are going home. They are going home to Ogre Island. Then Momotaro runs to his parents.

"Mother, Father," says Peach Boy. "I want to fight the ogres. Give me some dumplings please. And a big stick."

So his mother gives him some dumplings. His father gives him a big stick. "Goodbye," they say. "And goodluck."

Momotaro walks along. Then he sees a big dog. "Hi, dog!" says Momotaro. "I want to fight the ogres. Have a dumpling and come with me!"

So the dog eats the dumpling. Then it goes with him.

They walk along. Then they see a pheasant. "Hi, pheasant!" says Momotaro. "We want to fight the ogres. Have a dumpling and come with us!"

So the pheasant eats the dumpling. Then it goes with them.

They walk along. Then they see a monkey. "Hi, monkey!" says Momotaro. "We want to fight the ogres. Have a dumpling and come with us!

So the monkey eats the dumpling. Then it goes with them.

"My friends," says Momotaro, the Peach Boy. "Let's go to the Ogre Island. Let's fight the ogres."

Then he saw something. "There it is!" says Momotaro. "There's Ogre Island! Look at the big castle!"

Momotaro arrived at the Island and lookep up the castle. They look up at the big, big castle. The castle door is closed. But the pheasant flies up. It flies up into the castle.

The pheasant fights the ogres. The ogres are afraid. "Help!" they cry. "Help!"

Then the monkey goes up. It goes up into the castle. It opens the door. Then Momotaro and the dog run into the castle.

Momotaro fights the ogres with his stick. The dog, the pheasant, and the monkey all fight. They all fight the ogres.

The ogres are afraid. "We are sorry," they say. "Please go. Take your treasure and go."

Momotaro takes the treasure. "Hurray!" he says. "Good work, my friends!"

Momotaro and his friends go home. They go home with the treasure. All the people shout, "Hurray! Hurray!" Everybody's happy.

Since then, the ogres never come back!

Note: The story is taken from the book Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs of Oxford University Press (www.oup.com/elt). There are some sentences that I've been changed. It's much better if you can get your own book because of the beautiful and colorful pictures. Cd is also included in the book. What I do for my students is to let them listen to the story everyday before taking the lesson. And after a month, it's amazing that most of them can memorize most of the content of the book. Some can even memorize everything.